Dan Bice's Deep Throat

I don't think Dan Bice's anonymous source in the outing of the Ed Flynn and Jessica McBride affair is receiving appropriate scrutiny.

This anonymous person tipped off Bice on June 1st. That's what set his investigation in motion.

In an interview on 620 WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News" yesterday, Bice speaks of the process.

He presents himself as an almost heroic figure, working for weeks to get Flynn and McBride to buckle.

Last week, he claims he was barred from one of Flynn's press conferences because he says "they were afraid" that he might raise the question of the affair.

Bice says, "Stuff's been going on for the last two and a half weeks."

When asked why this is a story, Bice claims that "we struggled with that."

Really? Ethical concerns?

He explains, "Someone sent us what appeared to be a love letter and e-mails between them, and we spent time... we even spent more than an hour talking to a journalism ethicist about this."

Bice says they talked to two of the leading journalistic ethics professors in the country, and they struggled with whether to run the story. It was no longer a struggle, however, once the Chief decided to make the apology.

Obviously, Flynn's decision to make a public apology came about because he was being hounded by Bice and he knew the story was going to break. Bice makes it sound as if Flynn just voluntarily chose to air this incident in his personal life. That's a distortion of events.

Bice sticks to his justification that there was a journalistic ethics question because "there was this long, glowing story that Jessica had written about him, and it's not clear when the affair starts."

Enough with the journalistic ethics stuff!

Is that really what this story is about, journalistic ethics?

This is a journalistic ethics scandal?

That's ridiculous.

Speaking of ethics, one aspect of this story that's not receiving appropriate attention is the anonymous source, the one with access to the smoking gun communications between Flynn and McBride.

About the "juicy" information supplied by the source, Bice says, "Actually, there was a lot that I had to... I mean, there was... we were up late trying to figure out what we could and what we couldn't include. And, you know, some of it is incredibly graphic. And we decided not to include some of that."

Bice throws out that he's in possession of "incredibly graphic" e-mails between Flynn and McBride. Just making that statement is damaging. How does Bice define "incredibly graphic"?

He's a tease engaged in an "I've got a secret" sort of game that promotes gossip. That's not very ethical.

Bice gives an account of an encounter he had with Paul Bucher, Jessica McBride's husband, when he showed up at his house.

"Last week, he threw me off the property. And he's threatened to have the cops called on me for asking questions about this."

I don't think it's unreasonable for Bucher to demand that Bice leave him and his family alone when they're at their home. I don't see Bice as a victim or Bucher as the bad guy.

Because of Bucher's reaction, Bice concludes that the letters are "probably" from Flynn and McBride.

There's a lot of conjecture.

Bice returns to the nature of the letters. "The letters... I don't think we can publish things because they are incredibly graphic."

What's that supposed to mean?

Is it necessary to note how graphic he thinks the letters are? What's the point of that other than to do more harm?

Isn't the point of running this story really just to sell more newspapers, and boost ratings on WTMJ and TMJ4?

There are a number of unanswered questions that are important.

I want to know how someone gets their hands on such personal communications.

I question if it was done legally. Does Bice know?

I want to know why this anonymous source would choose to take that information to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Certainly, people are aware of less than flattering happenings in the lives of public figures and they don't run to the media with the details.

I want to know who wanted to trash Ed Flynn and Jessica McBride. Was someone out to damage Paul Bucher?

Are these politically motivated dirty tricks?

Bice claims he has no clue about his source. I wonder if he's at all curious.
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UPDATE, June 22, 2009: The McBride Affair

And how the Journal Sentinel got it dead wrong.
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UPDATE, June 27, 2009: Murphy, McBride, and Bice